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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Temperatures to hit 32 deg in B.C. this weekend

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Metro Vancouver, as the region gets hit with its first heat wave of the summer. The statement, posted Saturday, said the highest temperatures of hot spell are expected today and Sunday for coastal B.C., with highs approaching or exceeding 32 degrees C inland.

Photograph by: Les Bazso
, PNG

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Metro Vancouver, as the region gets hit with its first heat wave of the summer.

The statement, posted Saturday, said the highest temperatures of hot spell are expected today and Sunday for coastal B.C., with highs approaching or exceeding 32 degrees C inland.

In the Alberni and Pemberton valleys, the federal weather agency said temperatures will reach the mid to upper 30s all weekend.

Earlier in the week, forecasters predicted highs of up to 40 degrees C in the Okanagan.

In Metro Vancouver, the hot weather is expected to continue through Wednesday with afternoon temperatures ranging from the mid 20s to near 30 degrees C.

The weather statement said isolated thunderstorms are also possible Sunday evening as an upper disturbance moves northward from Washington state.

David Wray, a meteorologist with the agency, says temperatures in the southern half of the province appear to be 10 to 11 C above normal for the time of year. Wray says it is 8 to 10 C above normal for the northern half of B.C. where temperatures will likely break records next week.

Wray says it is important to wear sunscreen this weekend because it will only take about 15 minutes for skin to get burned.

The hot, dry weather mixed with the possibility of a thunderstorm is a major risk factor for wildfire in the province. Officials are warning people to be extra careful when out in the woods and observe all campfire bans in place.

B.C.’s biggest interface fire, the Red Creek fire burning near the Alberta border, has now been mapped at 4,500 hectares. The blaze, burning 61 kilometres southeast of Tumbler Ridge, was sparked by lightning a week ago and continues to spread.

An evacuation order, affecting 200 workers from an oil and gas camp, remains in effect.

Navi Saini of the B.C. Wildfire Management Branch says there are 45 wildfires across the province, with three fires expected to take days to put out. Forty-one firefighters and six helicopters are trying to put out a four-square-kilometre fire near Quesnel, in the North Cariboo region which started Tuesday.

Twenty firefighters are battling a 10-square-kilometre blaze in north B.C. near Williston Lake that started Thursday.

Meantime, the BC SPCA is again pleading with pet owners not to leave their dogs in hot cars — not even for a few minutes.

BC SPCA spokeswoman Lorie Chortyk says despite all the warnings about the dangers of leaving animals in cars in the summer, the agency is “being inundated with calls this summer to rescue pets left in parked vehicles.”

She said last month, the BC SPCA responded to 228 calls to rescue dogs in distress who had been left in hot cars by their guardians.

“In just minutes, the temperature in a parked car can climb to well over 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). Dogs have no sweat glands, so they can only cool themselves by panting and by releasing heat through their paws,” she said.

Dogs can withstand high temperatures for only a very short time — in some cases just minutes — before suffering irreparable brain damage or death, she added.

Dave Lefebvre of Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care says there has not been any word of more heatstroke patients in St. Paul's Hospital and Aletta Vanderheyden of Fraser Health says there have

been no increase in reports of patients with heatstroke in 12 of the authority's hospitals, as of Saturday.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Metro Vancouver, as the region gets hit with its first heat wave of the summer. The statement, posted Saturday, said the highest temperatures of hot spell are expected today and Sunday for coastal B.C., with highs approaching or exceeding 32 degrees C inland.

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